Crescent City accepts $2 million Mellon grant for Beachfront Park, approves litho-mosaic contract

Crescent City — The City Council voted to accept a $2,000,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to expand the Tallahua Cultural Trail and related Beachfront Park improvements and approved a professional-services contract to fabricate and install litho-mosaic public-art elements integral to the trail and the Cultural Center.

City staff described the Mellon funding as the final major grant needed to complete a larger master plan of interpretive nodes and site work extending along the California Coastal Trail to Battery Point. “This first item is to accept the Mellon grant, in the amount of $2,000,000,” a city staff member told the council during a presentation that also reviewed prior grants and design work.

The grant will pay for additional interpretive stations that were not fully funded by earlier awards, staff said. The council heard that a separate Arts and Parks grant of roughly $300,000 is funding several interpretive nodes but that fabrication proposals for some pieces came in above initial estimates, leaving gaps the Mellon award is intended to cover. Staff also said elements of the work will be funded through the Clean California grant where appropriate and that some Clean California-funded tasks must be completed before other pieces proceed.

Council members were shown design renderings and construction techniques for the public art elements, including large interpretive nodes described as the redwood tree, a burden basket and a canoe node; and litho-mosaic installations planned for the front of the Cultural Center and a welcome station. Staff described a pebble mosaic made up of 2,400 pebbles to represent pre-contact population and a separate element representing 121 people from an early 1905 census, and said the litho technique allows more intricate imagery than standard pavers.

Staff described a phased schedule tied to grant deadlines and permitting. The California Coastal Trail segment is the immediate priority and is expected to begin concrete and site-improvement work in mid-August, with litho-mosaic installation targeted for late September to early October, subject to meeting multiple grant deadlines. A staff speaker said one grant deadline had been extended to Nov. 30 and another remained Sept. 30; the timeline for Front Street and Cultural Center frontage work was described as trailing the Coastal Trail work and likely to continue into 2026.

The council approved a motion to accept the Mellon grant and adopt Resolution No. 2025-29 amending the fiscal year 2025–26 budget to reflect the award. The motion passed with an affirmative vote recorded by the clerk: Council member Dooley — yes; Council member Verdinov — yes; Council member Tim Clark — yes; Mayor Curtin Wright — yes; Mayor Altman — yes. The council then approved the professional-services agreement with TB and Sons Incorporated to fabricate and install the litho-mosaic public-art elements; that vote was recorded as affirmative.

Staff cautioned that the professional-services contract is contingent on available funding from the Clean California grant and other sources once the project bids are received next month. If bid results leave insufficient Clean California funds, portions of the work would be adjusted or deferred. Staff also said the larger Front Street and Cultural Center-frontage improvements are planned in a later phase and are not fully funded in the contracts approved for the immediate work.

Construction and funding approvals will proceed in phases: Coastal Trail and immediate concrete work this fall, mosaic installation shortly after, and Front Street and Cultural Center elements to follow depending on bid results and available grant funds.

The council took no public comment on the items before voting.